Board of Directors

Alan Elkin

Chairman of the Board and CEO

Alan Elkin co-founded Active International in 1984.

Alan began his career at Kaiser Broadcasting, which, under his direction as Senior Vice President of Sales, later became Field Communications and then a subsidiary of Katz Media Group. He’s received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Ernst & Young and the British American Business Inc. Award in recognition of Active’s global accomplishments.

Alan believes that community involvement is as important as business leadership and through the company’s ActiveCares program, contributions have been made to over 600 charities since 1997.

Arthur Wagner

Member of the Board and President

Arthur co-founded Active International in 1984.

Prior to co-founding Active, Art gained a reputation as one of the industry’s most knowledgeable media experts. He held senior sales and management positions at four important broadcast companies: Seltel, Inc., Katz Communications, Field Communications and Kaiser Broadcasting.

Art has also made community involvement a priority. Through the company’s Active Cares program, contributions have been made to over 600 charities since 1997.

Alan Brown

Member of the Board and President, Active International Holdings

A principle of the company, a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Leadership Team, Alan has direct responsibility for global strategic development as well as strategic oversight of Active’s domestic and international media and non-media trading products, models and strategic partnerships.

Known for his innovation and creativity, Alan has developed trading programs and products that have become industry standards.

Peter Eio

Peter Eio has more than 40 years of experience in Marketing and General Management with leading global consumer brands including Alka-Seltzer, Brillo, Playtex and LEGO. For almost 20 years he was responsible for building LEGO businesses, first in the UK and subsequently in the US with a compound internal growth rate of 12% per annum. For over 12 years he served as President of LEGO in the Americas, developing the LEGO brand to the most respected in the US toy industry with a penetration of over 70% among families with children.

Mr. Eio, who was a member of the LEGO Global Management Team, led an organization of 1,100 employees with a turnover of $500 million based in Enfield, Connecticut. Prior to joining the LEGO Company, he spent 11 years with International Playtex Corporation where he served as General Manager of their Scandinavian operations.

Educated in the UK, Mr. Eio is an alumnus of the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and holds Honorary Degrees from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Hartford where he is a Life Regent and served as Chair of the Board from 2003-2009. Between 1998-2000 he was Chair of the Toy Manufacturers of America. From 1992-2011 he served on the board of Reflexite Corporation, a global specialized technology company based in Connecticut, which he chaired from 2009-2011. He was a founding member of the Governance Board of the ICTI-Care Foundation that monitors factory working conditions in the global toy industry.

In 2017, Mr. Eio was inducted into the American Toy Industry Hall of Fame.

Over his career he has held directorships in over a dozen countries and has a global network of contacts in various industries. In 1993 he was awarded the Prince Henrik Medal of Honour for services to Danish Industry.

Debbie Richman

Ms. Richman most recently served (2017-2018) as Executive Vice President, Brand, Revenue & Yield Management, Disney/ABC, reporting to Rita Ferro, President Advertising Sales, Disney/ABC. In this capacity, Debbie optimized and managed multi-platform business opportunities across the Disney/ABC portfolio. She lead dedicated daypart, programmatic and digital revenue teams, linking to the content across multiple platforms, including ABC Entertainment, Daytime, News, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Radio Disney and Freeform. This also included The Walt Disney Company’s online, social and mobile offerings.

Debbie had previously served as the Senior Vice President of Primetime Sales for the ABC Television Network until 2017. Debbie joined ABC in April 2010 and reported directly to Geri Wang, President of Sales. Her responsibilities included the sale and stewardship of ABC Primetime and ABC Unified (the network’s multi-platform program offering), the development of upfront and scatter to-market strategies for all dayparts and the management of key vendor relationships, including AMPAS, DCP and CMA.

Richman was previously Executive Vice President, Ad Sales, of Lifetime Networks, a position to which she was named in April 2008 . In her role, Richman oversaw all ad sales for Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network – the two highest-rated women’s networks – Lifetime Real Women, Lifetime Digital (which includes myLifetime.com, LMN.tv, Roiworld.com, DressUpChallenge.com, MothersClick.com and LifetimeMoms.com), as well as Lifetime HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD and Lifetime On Demand.

Prior to joining Lifetime, Richman had been Managing Director, National Broadcast, at OMD since 2005. In this role, she was responsible for the annual purchase of $4B in media while authoring a number of industry “firsts.” With her dedicated team of digital investment specialists (online, broadband, Tivo, HD, 3D and VOD), she crafted historic combined linear/digital Upfront with ABC Unlimited and MTV Networks. Richman pioneered exclusive product integration deals with both cable and broadcast networks that spanned OMD’s client portfolio on both traditional television and emerging platforms.

Previously, Richman was Director of National Television at Optimum Media, which folded into OMD in 2002. While there, she managed the investment of billings for more than 40 blue-chip accounts, including Hershey, Universal Pictures, Mobil, Clorox, McDonald’s, State Farm and JC Penney.

Richman also ran the Johnson & Johnson National Broadcast agency of record account while with two separate advertising agencies over the span of ten years. From 1988 to 1993, she was Vice President, Media Supervisor, at Young & Rubicam, and from 1993 to 1997, continued to oversee the J&J account as Vice President, Group Media Supervisor, with McCann-Erickson. She began her media career in 1984 at Ogilvy & Mather, where she worked on such accounts as Smith Barney, International Playtex, Duracell, Campbell’s Soup and Hallmark.

A 2005 Advertising Age Woman to Watch, Richman graduated from Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She resides with her family in New York City.

Mel Lazar

Mr. Lazar has served as one of our directors since his appointment in 1998. He was the founder of Lazar Levine & Felix LLP, certified public accountants, was its managing partner from 1969 until 2002, and continued as a member of the firm, now known as Baker Tilly, LLC, until his retirement in 2014. Mr. Lazar specializes in business valuations and merger and acquisition activities.

As the managing partner of a certified public accounting firm for over 30 years, a member of the board of directors of a New York Stock Exchange REIT company and the chairman of its audit committee and a former member of the audit committee of a large biotechnology company, Mr. Lazar has extensive accounting and financial expertise in a variety of businesses, which lead the Board of Directors to conclude that Mr. Lazar should serve as a director of the Company and as Chair of the Audit Committee.

Mr. Lazar received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the City College of New York in 1960 and completed the Principles of Business Valuations of the American Society of Appraisers. He received his accreditation in Business Valuation from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1988. Mr. Lazar’s certified public accounting firm was an early member of the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board. Mr. Lazar is a life member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants and he has served on their various committees.

Kenneth R. Rossano

Kenneth R. Rossano is founder and CEO of Rossano Resources, a consulting and early stage venture investment firm. He is also a director of Active International and treasurer of the New England Business Development Corporation, and is an advisory board member of Innoveas A.G., an investment firm specializing in the tech transfer for major European universities.

Mr. Rossano’s many civic activities include trusteeships or directorships at McLean Hospital, Partners Healthcare System, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the First Literacy Foundation and the Wellesley Education Foundation. He is chairman of the Maple Leaf Foundation and chairman emeritus at the New England Canada Business Council. Mr. Rossano is also an advisory board member of the Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative at Harvard. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia, University.

Malcolm L. Sherman

Malcolm L. Sherman served as chairman of Zayre Stores and executive vice president of Zayre Corporation until 1987. Since his retirement from Zayre Corporation he has led several companies to greater success through strategic and executional discipline. As chief executive officer he has successfully managed Regina Electric Company, an appliance manufacturer and distributor; Chanel Home Centers Inc., a chain of home improvement stores; Morse Shoe Company, a manufacturer, distributor and retailer of footwear and accessories; and Ekco Group Inc. a manufacturer and distributor of houseware products and pet supplies.

He has served as a director of Campuchem Labs, Inc. a drugs of abuse and environmental testing company, United State Trust Company, Lifeplans, Inc. a reinsurance company and Steth Tech Corporation, a medical supply company. He is currently chairman of the Board of Gordon Brothers Group, Inc. a merchant services business, a director of One Price Clothing Inc., Active International, a media/barter company, and Maxwell Shoe Company.

He has served as chairman of the Board of Fellows and vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University, chairman of the Boston Museum of Science, chairman of the Two Ten International Foundation, a shoe and leather philanthropic organization, and chairman of the New England Sports Lodge of Bnai Brith. He is currently chairman of the New England Medical Center.

He also serves as a trustee of the Auerbach Foundation, the Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary, The Fourth of July Foundation and the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute. He is an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Whitehead Institute.

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